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Guinea Bissau (MNN) -- Guinea Bissau is a place of intense spiritual battles. Where Christian work expands, the enemy tries to oppose.

Recently, more than 50 shaman (religious leaders in animism) placed a curse on Bible translation and Christian work there. The shaman's plan backfired, and instead of the believers getting sick and dying, the shaman began to get sick and die.

Wycliffe Associates' Bruce Smith says the power of Truth has made people much more responsive to the Gospel.

I think this is quite a story, and I can't understand why, in this 425-word article, there's no more about the witch doctors. How many died, for instance? And what did they die of?

I can't understand why the reporter who wrote it wasn't more curious, either. All I can think is, with his connections, the untimely demise of more than 50 witch doctors for impertinence is an unremarkable commonplace. Thank goodness some other reporter was covering Elisha when the she bears ate the children who poked fun at his baldness.

I called Wycliffe Associates to learn more about it, but wasn't successful. The phone was answered by a pleasant, grandmotherly sort who had no idea what I was talking about. I read her the second paragraph, and her (approximate) response was "Why ... isn't that something?!"

I agreed that it most certainly was, and got transferred to Wycliffe's communications department. The nice lady there had no idea what had happened, either, or how many witch doctors died. She promised to call back when she learned more, but hasn't.

There's nothing about it in Guinea Bissau's sole newspaper, either, though it seems there's a problem in Uganda with Born-again Christians going to the mortuaries and raising the dead.

Kayuwa said that he has used the same miracles to heal someone who had died and was in a mortuary the same way Jesus raise people who had died. A local vernacular newspaper, Bukedde quoted Pastor Kakande saying that the water he gives people for healing and blessings is safe and that there is no witchcraft in his church.

Maybe it's the witch doctors who are being raised back up, and so nobody is on this because it's a wash. Stay tuned.

Bob Felton
www.CivilCommotion.com
The Intersection of Religion, Law, and Politics